Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing system including a printout apparatus such as a Multi-Functional Peripheral (MFP) and a technique related thereto.
Background Art
There are printout apparatuses that have authentication functions. User authentication may also be performed using an external terminal. For example, when a user uses an external terminal to use a printout apparatus, the printout apparatus requires authentication of the user. The printout apparatus authorizes only the user who has been successfully authenticated to use the printout apparatus through the use of the external terminal.
There are authentication functions that can set not only user IDs and passwords but also a variety of identification information (e.g., department IDs and passwords) as authentication information. Such authentication functions using a variety of authentication information are also referred to as “extensible authentication” or “advanced authentication.”
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-93875, for example, a user terminal (external terminal) requires a user to input authentication information (a user ID, a user password, a department ID, and a department password) for execution of a print job. When the user has been successfully authenticated on the basis of the authentication information inputted by the user, an MFP (printout apparatus) executes the print job.
However, not all of the external terminals can get a complete set of authentication information required for extensible authentication. For example, a standard printing software program (standard printing software) that is stored as a standard printing function of the operating system (OS) of an external terminal may not be able to get a complete set of authentication information required for the extensible authentication.
More specifically, the standard printing software generally prepares user IDs and passwords as fixed standard items (input items), but does not prepare other items (e.g., department IDs and passwords). Thus, when department IDs and passwords are also required as authentication information for extensible authentication, a user of the external terminal cannot input department IDs and passwords by using the standard printing software. Even if the user transmit a print job to a printout apparatus that also requires other authentication information for extensible authentication, by using the standard printing software, the external terminal cannot get a complete set of authentication information required for the extensible authentication. Consequently, user authentication fails due to a lack of authentication information (lack of department IDs and passwords), and the MFP cannot execute the print job from the external terminal.
When (only) the standard printing software of the external terminal is used to transmit a print job and authentication information from the external terminal to the printout apparatus as described above, there are cases where necessary authentication information is not transmitted at the time of transmission of a print job, authentication fails due to a lack of authentication information required for extensible authentication, and the MFP cannot execute the print job.
This problem can arise not only when the external terminal cannot get a complete set of authentication information required for extensible authentication at the time of transmission of a print job, but also when the external terminal cannot get a complete set of authentication information required for other authentication at the time of transmission of a print job.